Fitzgerald: Was Any Damage Done By the Valerie Wilson Leak? I Don’t Know.

NRO ^ | Byron York

[Robe]

CLASSIC !!!!!

I love the creativity of FReepers !!

[aligncare]

Who's on first? I don't know...Third Base!

[Dems_R_Losers]

This case is going to be thrown out. No investigation or proof of underlying crime = no perjury or obstruction. Fitzgerald just shot himself in both feet. I don't know how else you can spin this.

I also think he threw in that gratuitous reference about emails being lost or destroyed precisely to get the subject changed in the media from his own incompetence to a White House "coverup." He can lay low and keep drawing a paycheck while the White House tries to handle a sh*tstorm about destruction of evidence. And any potential jury will be poisoned against Libby and the White House.

[John Lenin]

This case fell apart, will Fitzgerald admit it ? Not likely.

[Wolfstar]

FITZGERALD: We have neither sought, much less obtained, all documents, regardless of when created, relating to whether Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA employee, or any aspect of that status, was classified at any time between May 6, 2003 and July 14, 2003.

The only reason the "leak" of her name was investigated at all was because her CIA employment status was supposedly classified.

FITZGERALD: You [Libby's lawyers] demand access to all documents referencing Mr. Wilson's 2002 trip to Iraq.

Wilson's trip to NIGER, not Iraq, is central to the whole case. It's the story reporters were interested in, and the reason they wanted to discuss it with Libby, Rove and other WH officials. It's the reason Novak wrote his column, which triggered the investigation. Yet Fitzgerald doesn't even get the country right two-plus years into his investigation?!

FITZGERALD: A formal assessment has not been done of the damage caused by the disclosure of Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA employee.

By his own admission, then, Fitzgerald didn't bother to find out if there was even a crime committed as regards the "leak" of her name, so he justifies the waste of taxpayer dollars over more than two years by trumping up perjury charges against Libby.

THIS is the prosecutor so many people, including many FReepers, assured us was squeeky clean, dedicated, honest, excellent, etc.? From the above-quoted court documents, it seems Patrick Fitzgerald ignored all the central facts of the case he was employed to investigate. Un-frickin-believable!

At this point, Fitztgerald is the one who ought to be investigated.

[t2buckeye]

My exact thought!!! Fitzgerald was charged with determining if a crime was committed: the leak of classified information to damage a CIA agent and/or her husband in retaliation and all that goes with that.

The only way to prove the above is to determine the status of Plame. From what this says, he is not just saying that the information about Plame's status is not relevant...he's saying he doesn't KNOW her status. How could Fitzgerald NOT know if a crime was committed if he cannot say whether or not Plame was undercover at the time. That's an integral part of the legislation. He decided to NOT charge LIbby with the crime of leaking classified information...why not? That was obviously the charge they were looking into, and Plame's status would have been necessary to determine the charge.

To say that it has no relevance to Libby's perjury is wrong too. The whole point of Libby's "lying" is based on Fitz's belief that Libby THOUGHT or KNEW she was classified and was motivated to lie about his "leaks." In Libby's capacity, perhaps he KNEW that she wasn't classified (and therefore, knew he was in no danger of leaking classified info and therefore no motive to lie)

[Steve_Seattle]

It is really quite phenomenal that - in two years - in a case narrowly focused on whether leaking a specific piece of information was illegal - Fitz has still not made a thorough inquiry into whether releasing that information was in fact illegal. This is starting to look like prosecutorial incompetence. The following statement is particularly damning: "We have neither sought, much less obtained, 'all documents, regardless of when created, relating to whether Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA employee, or any aspect of that status, was classified at any time between May 6, 2003 and July 14, 2003." Wasn't that the point of the whole investigation, the basic starting point?

[colorado tanker]

Excellent points.

[oneofmany]

Ian't it a judges job to determine if evidence is or is not relevant to a case? Fitzgerald says he doesn't think it's relative so he won't turn anything over.

[newnhdad]

this entire episode is pathetic.
A lecherous hippie who happens to be an unemployed ex-ambassador is sent by his wife, who is a bureaucrat in an office filled with people that are at odds with the administration, to collect data or SPY. These people are probably pissed that they actually have to collect actionable intelligence, which is something the last administration had no use for.

He returns and writes a report that is voluntarily forwarded to the VP's office and folded in with other intel to create a policy that the aging hippie disagrees with. So the aging hippie decides to provide his version of the data to the NY Slimes that willing laps it up.

The administration looks into the matter and discovers that the aging hippie, who leaked secret information, was sent by an uncooperative section of the CIA, recommended by his "spy" wife to discredit the effort but actually helped.
Now someone who worked in the administration heard, as did half of DC, that his wife (democrat) worked "the agency", and recommended him for the job.
This was confirmed to the press and reported as such, then the aging hippie cried to his democrat friends who went ape. To shut them up, the president authorized an investigation into a possible crime.

It's later discovered that no actual crime was committed but nevertheless, Elliot Ness decided to test everyone's memory and create one. So, one guy has a slightly different recollection than a few other people about one, of a few hundred, five-minute conversations he's had over the past few years. This guy is dragged into court and charged with multiple felonies, a day known as "Fitzmas" by his followers.
Now Elliot Ness is hindering the accused's ability to defend himself by withholding evidence that more than likely doesn't exist. He's also trying to take the light away from his poorly run investigation by accusing the administration of hiding "evidence".

This sounds like a movie of the week.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Well, the next step would be for Libby to go to the judge to compel the release -- the judge would then decide. Usually you work as much out as you can first with the prosecuter, then go to the judge.

[bray]

Looks like Fitzmas is going to have to change that Pitcher hitting Batter story a bit??? If a Pitcher throws a strike down the middle of the plate, should the Umpire still throw him out???

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[Hardastarboard]

Every time I hear this guy's name now, I can't help think of that silly joke about the two gay Irish boys who are a perfect match: Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick (read it out loud).

[Pilsner]

I think that there are two possible ways for this to be relevant.

First, Libby's lawyers hope to show that he had no motive to lie about what he had done because he had not broken the law, and the prosecutor knows this.

Second, I hesitate to draw an analogy between State law in Texas and Federal law, but here goes. It is a crime to, with intent to deceive, knowingly make a false statement that is material a criminal investigation to a peace officer conducting that criminal investigation.

It is no defense to the charge of false report that the final conclusion of the investigation was that there was no crime committed, or that the officer just cannot tell if a crime has been committed.

However, if the peace officer already knows that no crime has been committed, then what ever he was doing was not a criminal investigation, and it would not be a crime to have lied to him.

[WoofDog123]

""We have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system."

Replace cheney with gore and people would be howling. The vanished emails may deal with something else entirely though.

[cgk]

BFLR

[jonrick46]

Your parody is brilliant!

[Kaslin]

Bump

[jonrick46]

"By his own admission, then, Fitzgerald didn't bother to "find out if there was even a crime committed as regards the "leak" of her name, so he justifies the waste of taxpayer dollars over more than two years by trumping up perjury charges against Libby."

We all remember how Fitzgerald kept us hanging until the last minute for the results of his investigation. If I were to pay him for his work, he would only get half. And he would have to pay that back in fines from his fraud conviction.

[Wolfstar]

And he would have to pay that back in fines from his fraud conviction.

Indeed. What a totally fraudulent effort. Once again, we taxpayers get stuck holding the bag for government nonsense.